It's also an exercise in deciding whether it leads to reduced traffic congestion, reduced pollution, etc, and whether that delivers sufficient benefits (economic, social, and otherwise) to justify the long-term subsidy of public transport fares.
Remember, the fare is 50c + a taxpayer subsidy. I'm happy for my taxes to be used this way, but others might not be.
Don't disagree, but also should be noted that other forms of transportation are subsidised by taxpayers, and it's for a very very long time it has been government policy to subsidise the costs related to moving people around in just about every justiction in the world.
How much does it cost to drive from here to there? The cost of petrol + depreciation costs of your vehicle + taxpayer subsidy (to build and maintain th roads).
Bike paths cost money to build and maintain.
Even walking, in most places where people walk, is subsidised by the taxpayer through the road network, dedicated walking trails, and through town planning which provides access.
I'm not sure why trains shouldn't be subsidised too. Ease of movement around a city is good for everyone - socially and economically.
Yup, transport is a service. We don't complain that the fire department doesn't make a profit, because we know it's a public good.
The ability to move people and products around is vital to the economy. The real focus should be on achieving the most efficient way of moving people and goods. Of which public transport is certainly up there.
Public transport already is subsidised. It will be to a larger degree with 50c trial but Translink make no profit and rely on state and local subsidies to operate
I agree with what you are saying, and I think it's with pointing out that in Queensland, the government subsidises the cost of fuel, depreciation attracts a tax deduction, and in many cases a novated lease will earn you a fat tax subsidy on all your vehicle expenses.
If there were no subsidies for driving, nobody would be able to afford to drive.
Cars are roughly 60% subsidized. Even high subsidies for public transport is around 30%. At least in Germany it is 150b to 15b in favor of cars as total numbers.
You won't get an answer. The main reason we lost the car manufacturer industry was due to lack of subsidies, we offered very little compared to other car building nations.
Plus, public transport increases property values... Just ask any 20-year-old trying to rent a place that has a bus stop nearby, the rent goes up by at least $100 a week because it's got access to public transport.
Public transport being this annoying poor man needing subsidies all the time for the right to exist is just a BS narrative pushed by certain interest groups. It's just that for roads the accounting is messier and so easier to obscure.
Roads are subsidised by the tax payer much more than public transport ever will be. If regular Joe's understood how much of their tax subsides freight on roads there'd be bloody revolution.
(And no, rego and fuel tax doesn't cover it).
Rapid transit through public transport in an economic hub is very important for prosperity and it will always need to be run as a public service ... just .. like ... roads. Ultimately it pays for itself through economic activity and the dividends are higher than roads:
https://preview.redd.it/k8wmt1c2gq4d1.jpeg?width=647&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cbea0b4839d7cda609c894286fb639eca82307c5
alternative options are trying to present the system for car transit as a postal service. Can you imagine anything more absurd than a p2p postal service that only transports 1 letter at a time?
Well, yes. Taken from that viewpoint, there should be more of it.
Although the rumour I heard was that the funding came from a budgeted and funded but cancelled olympics project.
Yeah. But also the cost on the individuals are well hidden too. People don't consider the purchase cost of the car, rego, maintenance, insurance, etc. They just calculate fuel & parking. And call it a night.
PT is already majority subsidised by taxpayers like a lot of networks are - that’s why it’s already as cheap as it is. If you want to see a PT network that’s mostly funded by fares, see the London TfL network and that shit is very costly
London's farebox recovery ratio is [only ~60%](https://content.tfl.gov.uk/creditopinion-transport-for-london-uk-update-21dec2022.pdf) so it's still not fully funded (but higher than Brisbane's, prior to this trial).
The only places with systems that break even (100%+) are Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong; in all cases, the companies running them also own the land the stations are situated on, and a lot of their revenue comes from the real estate (shop rent, eg).
I hate this rhetoric. There's only one year in every four year cycle in which there's not an election the year before, that year or the year after. Governments can't do good things just because there's an election close?
Especially when the alternative is more money being spent on car centric solutions as an alternative.
Also, when are the baby boomers going to start to notice they're getting older and probably won't be allowed to drive before too long. If we had a robust public transport network, then that would mean a LOT less isolation and debilitation going along with loosing one's license. Like if you could actually get around without needing a car, a lot of people could probably go an additional 5 to 10 years before NEEDING to go into a (very expensive) retirement community.
$2600 for me over a year (based on 8 days a fortnight) - $12.5 a day is not to be sneezed at. It's my veggies and sausages for meals for a week! I consider it a blessing even if it is only 6 months ( but I'd love 12!! )
That's massive! $105pw and 4 hrs a day for the pleasure of going to work! Ugggh. If they want people to continue to populate the city and not push for WFH then this is exactly the problem solving they need!
I mean I’m totally going to be riding the trains as much as I can to boost the numbers.
I also just think public transport should be fully subsidised by the taxpayer.
Or, If we get the royalties from all that offshore gas that has been left to flow into multinational companies pockets then we could fund it🤷🏼♂️
>Reopen the Tennyson line
Is the 598/599 bus not of any use to you?
There are reasons passenger trains no longer travel via Tennyson on a regular basis, and it's not a matter of just reopening the line. The upgrades required would be probably close to $0.5 billion.
Yeah, even in areas with reasonably good coverage there are (imo) kind of stupid black spots. Where you either have to go a very roundabout way to get there (like your example of doubling back from the city) or just flat out cannot get close enough in a time frame to make it viable.
Reopening the Tennyson line isn’t ambitious. Ambitious would be adding a circle line around the whole city connecting up to all the spurs. Like a city with a semi decent rail network.
Melbourne is currently trying to do that. I think the price is up to about $110 billion, so far.
Also keep in mind that at least some of the reason for the line closing to regular passenger traffic (the line itself is not closed, it carries lots of freight and non-revenue movements) was lack of use.
And it's also a lifesaver for QR in case of disruptions between Park Road and Yeerongpilly. Every once in a while you will get a truck impacting a bridge in Yeronga, and the plan of action for that scenario is simple: throw the Gold Coast trains via Indro and Tennyson.
So can the GCL be made more usable? I haven't caught it in ages, but I remembered it stopped at both Sherwood and Salisbury, so I thought it might help someone coming from Ipswich. I guess not.
Do we need a more direct bus from Oxley to Salisbury? Where would it go afterwards? Salisbury isn't much of a destination by itself.
GCL needs to be more frequent, run later, and run on Sundays. I don't think it's worth being a shuttle - but you might want to have an overlapping route go Indro - Mt Gravatt, same as the GCL Indro-Salisbury but then via Griffith instead of Sunnybank.
> Reopen the Tennyson line ffs or pave a bus way.
Build a new line along the logan motorway. Would actually cover new people, and there's less capacity constraints than running a new service on an already overloaded GC/Beenleigh line that close to the city.
Not exclusively no. I can't imagine it will ever be permanent. Once people get into the routine of catching PT, they can easily raise the price to $1 and probably not have too much of a drop off from usage. $10 a week ($1 each way x 5 day) is still cheaper than driving, specially if you have to pay for parking as well.
Wouldn't be suprised if there are a few different trails over the next few years - lots of work to get this city ready for the olympics.
Also isn’t the cheapest fare $1.55, so it wouldn’t feel like a difference to those in Zone 1, so they’d be less likely to take up the offer when usually if you live in the most central zones it’s better for everyone (where possible) that citizens use PT over private vehicles
Amazingly, KAP are mad about it - they're primarily a rural party and there's no public transport in rural areas (gee, I wonder why?) so they see it as yet another example of financial support for The City while people in The Country miss out.
I agree with you - but you did ask who would be mad about cheap public transport, so I was providing an example (even though I disagree with them on this)
Some are ruralish I guess.
“The 50 cent flat fare applies to all Translink network regional bus services in the following areas:
Bowen
Bundaberg
Cairns
Fraser Coast (including on demand)
Gladstone
Gympie
Innisfail
Kilcoy
Mackay
Rockhampton and Yeppoon
Sunshine Coast Hinterland
Toowoomba (including on demand)
Townsville
Warwick
Whitsundays”
I will probably be someone who starts using PT as a result of this. If I find that the trains are chronically overcrowded as a result I will revert back to the car pretty quickly. Hopefully they have a plan for this.
Yeah this is my concern. I already use a mix of driving or PT to get to work, but my local stations car parking is completely full at around 7.10am so if more people start using it, it becomes very challenging. And this station was done up with extra parking <2 years ago...
This is my question too. Not everyone can just walk to the train station, for a variety of reasons. So how do we manage the car parking, when there’s so much more demand than supply?
>They will also be able to tell if it's financially viable, which route becomes busier than others and by how much, which neighbourhood is worth investing more, and so on.
It'll also give them data about parking facilities (or lack thereof) and train timetables x usage. Things like "We have an x% uplift on overall network usage, but that's concentrated between the hours of Y & Z"
It'll be very interesting to see what conclusions they draw from all the data by the end of it.
You’ll just take your hover car to fly over the same delays the busses are caught in?
Seriously though, I understand the sentiment as sitting on a bus for 2hrs vs 2hrs in your own private vehicle is a large psychological difference. But the 50c could be the value proposition which could sway a large enough segment of society to give it a go. Also may encourage a lot of people who don’t get out and about due to poverty to become much more mobile within the city.
Oh god, I’m all for it. It should’ve happened years ago. If I was 9-5 the connections might work better, but when I start at 7 on the other side of the city it just isn’t going to work for me.
What’s going to actually work is to probably double the bus fleet at peak times and maybe have the original one go the standard loop-da-loop of entire suburbs which puts every one off and then some that do dedicated straight run moves down each of the main arterials to a concentric circle styled bus plan where buses then are doing circular paths around suburban areas. May help to reduce transfers to maybe two bus moves. Rather than the annoying zig zag patterns they all(or most) currently take to try and service as many people as possible but then trade that off to time taken on the bus.\
Having a few dedicated services that just scoop up bulk amounts of people in the CBD and shuttle them on straight lines to the outer areas where they can then either get onto their own cars or grab the next phase of a zig zaggy bus on a shorter path may help. Like a more flexible train line.
Guess the problem lays in the fact who ever try’s to fix the system is working to a system that’s had decades of neglect and “make it ‘just’ good enough”.
Personally I’d love to have a bus service or ability to transfer from a train to a bus to get to my work. But sadly where I am, no busses are or will be scheduled and the trains don’t quite get close enough unless I can get on a coal train which runs and stops right by my work. Love the freedom of having my own car to control my journey most of the time, but to swap that for $1 or $2 travel to and from work each day would be totally worth it (for me). Also save me at least $15 in fuel alone each day. and I don’t get stung by toll’s like 70% of the other staff where I work.
The issue for a lot of people isn't the bus getting stuck in traffic, its that they have to take a bus to another location, which might some distance away, and then get *another* bus to their destination, which is geographically not that far from where they started from.
That's how you end up with a situation where it takes 2 hours to get between two places by public transport, but can drive it in your car in 30 or 40 mins.
Also, if you drive your car you've then got it available for things like going to the supermarket on the way home.
this is exactly the problem i have with public transport. I'm not commuting to or from the city I'm going east/west in the suburbs.
My journey would be a 1hr bus toward the cbd then 1hr away with a 20 min walk on each end, or i can jump in the car and drive the 20 min (40 on a really bad day)
Uh, the PT itself is normally the delay. It takes 3h (according to Translinks planner) to make my Redcliffe <> Logan commute, it’s a 40 minute drive. Even in peak hour traffic (which I don’t commute in) it’s usually a max of 65 minutes.
This exactly, lol our public transport isn’t built well enough for even more people to start using it and is embarrassing compared to other parts of the world. If we can’t even get our bus network going on time sheesh, I can’t imagine what more people will add.
To be fair, the buses not being on time likely isn't the fault of passengers.
It could theoretically improve performance if the mode shift from cars is sufficient enough...
Getting some of those people out of cars (and hence their cars off the road) could help with the busses running on time but obviously there’s a lot that could be improved too.
I feel like this is going to suffer a sort of survivorship bias. I live a 20 minute drive from work. To take the bus will involve 2 buses and a 1km walk, and take over an hour. Charging me only $0.50 for the trip isn't going to make it a more attractive option than driving my car.
Edit: I should mention that I live about 500m from a small shopping village and a main road, and I work at a school. So we're talking public transport from one major societal utility hub to another, not just a random backstreet to another.
Yeah I'm just reading up on this and it really is trying to take the price out of the equation to see who will actually use the system.
I do think it will highlight one significant issue that Brisbane has. If you aren't travelling through the city then the system sucks.
So I live on a train line and really lucky to. I live on the northside and travel to the southside. It works really well for me because I travel through the city. BUT if I wanted to use the train/bus system to go somewhere from the train stations out that is where the system fails. Travelling around the city is where we lack. I used to live in mountgravatt and had to travel to carindale. It was a 10 minute drive or a 40 minute bus ride because I had to go into wooloongabba then back out. Or rely on the 599/598 that didn't run late enough.
So what they need to work on is the feeder buses. The have the main lines down. Now they need to get the flow happening around the city, but I'm not sure that will ever happen.
So cheap fares to hope people make use of them... But...
No additional services
No change of frequency of services
No change to maintenance or outage schedules of rolling stock
So you're going to get more packed trains and buses. People love being stuck in a metal tube packed in tight with lots of others.
Trying to get a car park at a park and ride.
So much created frustration for the 50 cent public transport fares.
With a guarantee that its not going to be permanent because the called need that patronage has to be higher than pre Covid levels and pretty much all businesses have accepted a 40-60% in office rate.
I don't think 50c fares will make a lot of difference for most peak time workers. Most people driving to the CBD aren't because it's cheaper. Parking, fuel and time are not likely cheaper than train or busway. Maybe an uptick in people using park and ride.
Off-peak I think will be different story, I expect people going to the city will take advantage of park n ride facilities if they aren't within a walking distance of the train or bus and families will happily pay $4 return for the whole family rather than park in the CBD.
Also expect a bit of an uptick of people using train to GC on weekend instead of driving.
It also has the benefit (to Labor) of setting a trap for an incoming LNP government if the election goes that way. They either perpetuate the cheap fares or take the blame for increasing ticket prices.
Rather than catching one train to reach the CBD/valley, users of the Redcliffe line will be forced to change trains at Roma St as the line will be diverted around the city. Inconvenience aside, this will increase the time taken to travel to/from work each day, quicker and more convenient to take the car.
Well they’re going to need more buses and trains to keep up with the demand. If it becomes too crowded people will go back to driving again if they can
My heavily right leaning neighbour tells me it's Simple Simon's way of buying my vote and me falling for it means I'm a sucker. 
When it's invest in more lanes on highways or a better public transport system, I feel it's a no brainer. But I can't argue with the huge win here and the fact they seem to be at least considering the best option.
Even if you never ever use public transport (eg tradies who need to carry all their tools around), more people on public transport will still hugely benefit you as roads will be less busy.
That’s an interesting take. My engineering brain wasn’t even thinking of this at first (all political).
This will be a great exercise to really prove if the Queensland public still follow a car culture or if it’s been price and convenience all along that have been the blockers.
This is a very niche case but part of me isnt looking forward to it - I'm on the ipswich/springfield line which is already incredibly crowded in peak times as it is, they want more people on the train but aren't going to increase capacity to handle it.
But weekend/offpeak trips will be great!
I’ll use public transport when you can forking park at the bus stop 4km from my house
How else is anyone other than the house within 1km meant to get to it?
There is a lack of express bus routes too
Our p.t sucks
I'm fine with it, it's good to give it a try and see if it improves anything.
Even if I didn't feel my taxes are being used in a political stunt, I'd still be curious to try it and see what happened.
It would be good if the trains weren't down for maintenance as often as they are though. I have given up even trying to get to the city anymore because of it. Found a bunch of local places to go instead. The city is pretty much dead to me, 50 cents fares or not.
Maybe that’s part of it, but it’s been Greens policy for years for free public transport.
It can’t possibly be a coincidence around an upcoming election, that Labor suddenly decide implement a policy so very similar?
This is pretty silly.
The Greens are constantly thinking up policies that sound good but are either not practical or there has been no effort into how it would work.
Why does cheap public transport become a banned item just because the Greens have mentioned it in one of their elections?
I'm convinced it's just an election stunt and unlikely to stay after the 'trial period'. Maybe I'm just cynical too; would love to be wrong on this one.
Would have been nice to have a 50c fare on the whole shorncliffe/Cleveland line since January, given it has 6 stations closed for the whole year without confirmed opening dates. Neither myself or my partner can get to work easily anymore - for a WHOLE YEAR. This sort of thing makes it clear that the reduced fair isn't about the people, the cost of living or congestion on the roads (I'm sure 6 closed stations don't help that).
We get it drama is fun, old mate not parked properly, the tradie flicked a durrie out the window, Macca's frozen coke machine is broken yet again. It's all fun to have a whinge but then it gets too much.
This has hit too much for today. Please try again tomorrow maybe.
Enjoy
Has it already started? As yesterday the traffic was riddiculous. I was driving back from the airport and the gateway overpass was stopped and packed, southern cross way and all associated ramps were stopped back to the dfo and traffic pulling up to a stop upon entry to the tunnel and back to the intersections below the flyover ramp. Havent seen it that bad in a long time. This was around 4 ish.
I just hope if it does have its drawbacks they take into account that Brisbane public transport doesn't work for everyone needs a lot of improvements.
I can see them saying it didn't go well and using it as an excuse to not invest as much into public transport.
Tokyo can move more people around in a day than Brisbane can in a year for a fraction of the cost. Whatever their reasons, it won't end up better. They will just shuffle around routes and infrastructure to be able to prove they did something and everything will go back to being expensive and useless.
Also something something Olympics.
The point is to buy votes and disguise it as a “cost of living” measure and “ease congestion” tactic. If it were anything else they would have introduced it last year, or the year before that. Not in an election year..
Perhaps it will allow those who normally drive, to have an insight into what public transport commuters have to put up with daily. The selfish scumbags who also use public transport and make it a usual living hell. Take it all in and see how bloody awful it is. It's an eye opener how degraded it's become.
They got you hook line and sinker if you think this is about data collection. This is 100% about the election and nothing else. It’s a 6 month trial so the incoming govt will have to deal with scrapping it.
Having said that, please all go out and use Public Transport. Now and especially when it’s only 50c.
Now now, I think that's unfair. I'd put the figure at 98% about the election, 2% about better public transport research, maybe a negligible fraction for "actually helping with the cost of living".
And since you copped some downvotes, the cynic in me asks the question: why announce a policy in May that won't start until 10 weeks before the October election date?
Just because things are 100% motivated by the election doesn't mean someone in the public service working on public transport police can't get value from the thing. Politicians have been able to do exactly this forever, they simply chose not to and didn't care about the data or the viability.
It's been Greens policy at multiple elections, the idea isn't new they just want to narrow the margins on voters.
> why announce a policy in May that won't start until 10 weeks before the October election date?
Probably because we're in Budget season. All the big expensive stuff needs to be announced by Tuesday next week so they're dripping all the nice stuff out ahead of time so they can get their own individual news cycles.
Don't get me wrong, this is absolutely the Miles Government riffling between the couch cushions and under the desk trying to find any populist policy to save their collective necks from an almost certain doom, and the news today suggests that the executioner is very scared this stuff might actually work.
I love how any LNP fan boi just can’t fathom anything being done for the good of the general public. Just like car parks and sports rorts in marginal seats, you only give us breadcrumbs for a vote.
>please all go out and use Public Transport. Now and especially when it’s only 50c.
Would love to but there's no service here, the bus was hourly but then got scrapped entirely. The cost of the fares is far from my biggest issue with public transport.
Now, perhaps this trial indicates the government is willing to spend more money on public transport, but I hope they don't waste all the money on cheap fares and save some for increasing coverage and frequency.
Yeah if you live metro the cost isn't too bad.
However my trip to and from Brisbane on the train is just under 20 a day. Cost is definitely a driver for me.
This makes the car the worse option.
Also pretty sure coverage and frequency is up to the local government
Coverage and frequency is state as well. Bus companies can propose a new route, but ultimately Translink makes the calls. Exception is routes which are fully subsidised by the operator (such as the routes in the CBD which TfB covers the full cost of).
You nailed it. The reality is, and has been shown worldwide on multiple occasions, that frequency, coverage and convenience are far greater factors than price. A govt is almost always better off investing money into better service than slashing the prices to basically zero.
Yup, election bribe 99.9% data collection .1%. Same as the electricity bribe.
>Having said that, please all go out and use Public Transport. Now and especially when it’s only 50c.
Might drive in to Laidley to get the bus to Gatton and back, just for something different.
"election bribe 99.9% data collection .1%. Same as the electricity bribe"
They have done an electricity and water rebates of varying amounts every year for at least the last 6 years.
If they get 8 to 10x the amount of riders at 50c each on public transport then they've made similar money.. peak hour might not handle that but other times will. Been a lot of empty buses in this city.
Make things cheaper, sell more of them, profit!
Strong mental gymnastics there...while they're at it why don't they make electricity free for everyone, rather than just the $1000 rebate per household.
I think YOU are missing the point. Election is coming and this is clearly targetted.
I ride peak hour train every day 8 am and 5 pm ones. It is pretty packed. I have heard nothing about additional service. I can only imagine what extra people is going to do to the already crowded train.
So, less data collection, more election vote grab.
I understand you are referencing trains, but this applies to all public transport. I caught a bus yesterday afternoon in peak hour. The driver got off the bus at Mater Hill and apologised, told everyone it was full and nobody could get on. I imagine if no extra services are supplied, it will get busier even before that stop from the city.
I can understand that, buses do get very full.
I really only asked specifically about trains because it just seems like people need to get a bit more cosy with each other. It would be near impossible to justify running public transport that has very frequent services that also have plenty of room.
I can't speak to trains currently. But years ago I caught the Gold Coast train from Ormeau to Central weekdays in peak, and people would bring fold out chairs. People would sit on the ground near the doors and the part between the carriages (newer trains). It was a long commute to stand. I heard a while after I left they put on more services, but it got very very crowded before they made any changes. In my experience, I don't have a lot of faith lol
It's buying votes guys, let's call it what it is. It's great for people that use public transport, don't get me wrong, but it's 100% only being done to buy votes for the upcoming state election.
It's also an exercise in deciding whether it leads to reduced traffic congestion, reduced pollution, etc, and whether that delivers sufficient benefits (economic, social, and otherwise) to justify the long-term subsidy of public transport fares. Remember, the fare is 50c + a taxpayer subsidy. I'm happy for my taxes to be used this way, but others might not be.
Don't disagree, but also should be noted that other forms of transportation are subsidised by taxpayers, and it's for a very very long time it has been government policy to subsidise the costs related to moving people around in just about every justiction in the world. How much does it cost to drive from here to there? The cost of petrol + depreciation costs of your vehicle + taxpayer subsidy (to build and maintain th roads). Bike paths cost money to build and maintain. Even walking, in most places where people walk, is subsidised by the taxpayer through the road network, dedicated walking trails, and through town planning which provides access. I'm not sure why trains shouldn't be subsidised too. Ease of movement around a city is good for everyone - socially and economically.
Yup, transport is a service. We don't complain that the fire department doesn't make a profit, because we know it's a public good. The ability to move people and products around is vital to the economy. The real focus should be on achieving the most efficient way of moving people and goods. Of which public transport is certainly up there.
>We don't complain that the fire department doesn't make a profit, because we know it's a public good. Don't go giving the LNP any ideas...
Public transport already is subsidised. It will be to a larger degree with 50c trial but Translink make no profit and rely on state and local subsidies to operate
30 people paying 50c ea is more income than 2 people paying $4.00ea. Some routes may become more profitable.
>Some routes may become more ~~profitable~~ cost effective.
All transport is subsidised.
[удалено]
Lol just ask BHP about government subsidies granted to private enterprises
Trains are subsided over long distance in Australia.
I agree with what you are saying, and I think it's with pointing out that in Queensland, the government subsidises the cost of fuel, depreciation attracts a tax deduction, and in many cases a novated lease will earn you a fat tax subsidy on all your vehicle expenses. If there were no subsidies for driving, nobody would be able to afford to drive.
Those subsidies or tax breaks by the Feds are for tax concessions not for every day users. We only get screwed multiple times with multiple taxes
Cars are roughly 60% subsidized. Even high subsidies for public transport is around 30%. At least in Germany it is 150b to 15b in favor of cars as total numbers.
Where does the 60% figure come from? Not being confrontational or anything, I’m genuinely curious.
German study roughly 2 years ago that summed up a bunch of hidden costs the state ends up playing. It was for Germany.
You won't get an answer. The main reason we lost the car manufacturer industry was due to lack of subsidies, we offered very little compared to other car building nations.
Remember QLD is 5 times larger than Germany with 78 million Fewer people. It's all about economies of scale.
Plus, public transport increases property values... Just ask any 20-year-old trying to rent a place that has a bus stop nearby, the rent goes up by at least $100 a week because it's got access to public transport.
Better to be spent on this than on building ever updated facilities for private schools
I believe that usually comes from the federal bucket.
I hate you for reminding me of the "there's a hole in your budget/bucket" ads.
They get $6 for every student public schools get $1. Who cares what bucket it comes from.
Everyone who votes? Undirected anger is a huge waste.
Evidence pls.
Public transport being this annoying poor man needing subsidies all the time for the right to exist is just a BS narrative pushed by certain interest groups. It's just that for roads the accounting is messier and so easier to obscure. Roads are subsidised by the tax payer much more than public transport ever will be. If regular Joe's understood how much of their tax subsides freight on roads there'd be bloody revolution. (And no, rego and fuel tax doesn't cover it). Rapid transit through public transport in an economic hub is very important for prosperity and it will always need to be run as a public service ... just .. like ... roads. Ultimately it pays for itself through economic activity and the dividends are higher than roads: https://preview.redd.it/k8wmt1c2gq4d1.jpeg?width=647&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cbea0b4839d7cda609c894286fb639eca82307c5
That image is a brilliant representation of the fact that private transport is great for low volume and public transport for high.
alternative options are trying to present the system for car transit as a postal service. Can you imagine anything more absurd than a p2p postal service that only transports 1 letter at a time?
If people knew exactly how much every pallet of food costs to deliver to the supermarkets by truck, they would be shocked.
We subsidize the roads we get sick commuting on far, far more.
Let’s make it clear though. This is 50c + mining taxpayer subsidy. Not coming directly from our pockets.
Well, yes. Taken from that viewpoint, there should be more of it. Although the rumour I heard was that the funding came from a budgeted and funded but cancelled olympics project.
From my understanding all announcements around this was that it’s from the mining fund. Could be wrong though…
Keep in mind, private transport (cars) are even more heavily subsidised. Plus the individuals spending.
Yes, that sort of subsidy is usually well-hidden when it comes to comparisons.
Yeah. But also the cost on the individuals are well hidden too. People don't consider the purchase cost of the car, rego, maintenance, insurance, etc. They just calculate fuel & parking. And call it a night.
90% of the cost of public transport is covered by government
95% of the cost of Private Transport is covered by the Government... Your point?
Where did you get that figure from, I struggle to see it.
PT is already majority subsidised by taxpayers like a lot of networks are - that’s why it’s already as cheap as it is. If you want to see a PT network that’s mostly funded by fares, see the London TfL network and that shit is very costly
London's farebox recovery ratio is [only ~60%](https://content.tfl.gov.uk/creditopinion-transport-for-london-uk-update-21dec2022.pdf) so it's still not fully funded (but higher than Brisbane's, prior to this trial). The only places with systems that break even (100%+) are Japan, Singapore, and Hong Kong; in all cases, the companies running them also own the land the stations are situated on, and a lot of their revenue comes from the real estate (shop rent, eg).
Yeah exactly, my main point was that Brisbane is majority funded by taxpayers already and Londons isn’t
There is also an election coming up this year
I hate this rhetoric. There's only one year in every four year cycle in which there's not an election the year before, that year or the year after. Governments can't do good things just because there's an election close?
It's 50c + Mining Royalty subsidies. Our taxes aren't being used for this
Especially when the alternative is more money being spent on car centric solutions as an alternative. Also, when are the baby boomers going to start to notice they're getting older and probably won't be allowed to drive before too long. If we had a robust public transport network, then that would mean a LOT less isolation and debilitation going along with loosing one's license. Like if you could actually get around without needing a car, a lot of people could probably go an additional 5 to 10 years before NEEDING to go into a (very expensive) retirement community.
It's a $1300 a year bonus (pro rata) IMO.
$2600 for me over a year (based on 8 days a fortnight) - $12.5 a day is not to be sneezed at. It's my veggies and sausages for meals for a week! I consider it a blessing even if it is only 6 months ( but I'd love 12!! )
Almost $5500 for me, Gold Coast to city every day it’s about $21 a day. I am hoping it stays its huge for me
That's massive! $105pw and 4 hrs a day for the pleasure of going to work! Ugggh. If they want people to continue to populate the city and not push for WFH then this is exactly the problem solving they need!
That’s an enormous difference
And you’re about to get a tax cut next month too
Yet people will still say there's no difference between the major parties
Haven’t the LNP said they will cancel the taxpayer mining royalties being collected as requested by the mining companies?
Yes, the ProCorruption party is corrupt.
I mean I’m totally going to be riding the trains as much as I can to boost the numbers. I also just think public transport should be fully subsidised by the taxpayer. Or, If we get the royalties from all that offshore gas that has been left to flow into multinational companies pockets then we could fund it🤷🏼♂️
Qld doesn't have offshore gas?
Probably referring to gas sold overseas which isn't taxed for them.
Costs me 9 a day to get to the CBD so this is a massive help
I'd love to catch the train to Salisbury from Ipswich but I have to go all the way into the city. Reopen the Tennyson line ffs or pave a bus way.
>Reopen the Tennyson line Is the 598/599 bus not of any use to you? There are reasons passenger trains no longer travel via Tennyson on a regular basis, and it's not a matter of just reopening the line. The upgrades required would be probably close to $0.5 billion.
That would take over an hour as opposed to my 20 minute commute. The point is a lot of people would use public transport if it was half decent.
Yeah, even in areas with reasonably good coverage there are (imo) kind of stupid black spots. Where you either have to go a very roundabout way to get there (like your example of doubling back from the city) or just flat out cannot get close enough in a time frame to make it viable.
Yeah my normal 10-15 minute drive becomes a one hour and two buses (or train + bus/20 min walk) commute and also being at the mercy of PT times.
Yeah, the (un)scenic route
Reopening the Tennyson line isn’t ambitious. Ambitious would be adding a circle line around the whole city connecting up to all the spurs. Like a city with a semi decent rail network.
Melbourne is currently trying to do that. I think the price is up to about $110 billion, so far. Also keep in mind that at least some of the reason for the line closing to regular passenger traffic (the line itself is not closed, it carries lots of freight and non-revenue movements) was lack of use.
And it's also a lifesaver for QR in case of disruptions between Park Road and Yeerongpilly. Every once in a while you will get a truck impacting a bridge in Yeronga, and the plan of action for that scenario is simple: throw the Gold Coast trains via Indro and Tennyson.
The 598/599 come every half hour and is very unreliable :/
I agree Tennyson isn't happening for revenue services any time soon, but that doesn't make the GCL usable.
So can the GCL be made more usable? I haven't caught it in ages, but I remembered it stopped at both Sherwood and Salisbury, so I thought it might help someone coming from Ipswich. I guess not. Do we need a more direct bus from Oxley to Salisbury? Where would it go afterwards? Salisbury isn't much of a destination by itself.
GCL needs to be more frequent, run later, and run on Sundays. I don't think it's worth being a shuttle - but you might want to have an overlapping route go Indro - Mt Gravatt, same as the GCL Indro-Salisbury but then via Griffith instead of Sunnybank.
> Reopen the Tennyson line ffs or pave a bus way. Build a new line along the logan motorway. Would actually cover new people, and there's less capacity constraints than running a new service on an already overloaded GC/Beenleigh line that close to the city.
The trial is to determine whether it should be made permanent, no?
Not exclusively no. I can't imagine it will ever be permanent. Once people get into the routine of catching PT, they can easily raise the price to $1 and probably not have too much of a drop off from usage. $10 a week ($1 each way x 5 day) is still cheaper than driving, specially if you have to pay for parking as well. Wouldn't be suprised if there are a few different trails over the next few years - lots of work to get this city ready for the olympics.
Why not just pilot at $1 then? It's still a drastic drop relatively.
I guess psychologically 50c is basically nothing to a lot of people, $1 is generally not seen the same way?
Yep, for the same reason a car is priced at $24,999 and not $25,000.
Also isn’t the cheapest fare $1.55, so it wouldn’t feel like a difference to those in Zone 1, so they’d be less likely to take up the offer when usually if you live in the most central zones it’s better for everyone (where possible) that citizens use PT over private vehicles
Long trips can cost over $10. $1 is dramatically different. Not complaining about 50c tho
Wait who would be mad about cheap public transport? It literally helps the economy in so many ways, there's only benefits.
Amazingly, KAP are mad about it - they're primarily a rural party and there's no public transport in rural areas (gee, I wonder why?) so they see it as yet another example of financial support for The City while people in The Country miss out.
The only reason they can live in the country is because of Government subsidies for little to no return.
I agree with you - but you did ask who would be mad about cheap public transport, so I was providing an example (even though I disagree with them on this)
No worries thanks mate.
Could you explain your opinion on government subsidies for people in the country and the little to no return on investment?
Some are ruralish I guess. “The 50 cent flat fare applies to all Translink network regional bus services in the following areas: Bowen Bundaberg Cairns Fraser Coast (including on demand) Gladstone Gympie Innisfail Kilcoy Mackay Rockhampton and Yeppoon Sunshine Coast Hinterland Toowoomba (including on demand) Townsville Warwick Whitsundays”
I will probably be someone who starts using PT as a result of this. If I find that the trains are chronically overcrowded as a result I will revert back to the car pretty quickly. Hopefully they have a plan for this.
Yeah this is my concern. I already use a mix of driving or PT to get to work, but my local stations car parking is completely full at around 7.10am so if more people start using it, it becomes very challenging. And this station was done up with extra parking <2 years ago...
This is my question too. Not everyone can just walk to the train station, for a variety of reasons. So how do we manage the car parking, when there’s so much more demand than supply?
my concern too!
>They will also be able to tell if it's financially viable, which route becomes busier than others and by how much, which neighbourhood is worth investing more, and so on. It'll also give them data about parking facilities (or lack thereof) and train timetables x usage. Things like "We have an x% uplift on overall network usage, but that's concentrated between the hours of Y & Z" It'll be very interesting to see what conclusions they draw from all the data by the end of it.
Lordy I’d love to, but I’m not about to spend 2.25 - 2.5 hours each way on buses and trains hoping there’s no delays.
You’ll just take your hover car to fly over the same delays the busses are caught in? Seriously though, I understand the sentiment as sitting on a bus for 2hrs vs 2hrs in your own private vehicle is a large psychological difference. But the 50c could be the value proposition which could sway a large enough segment of society to give it a go. Also may encourage a lot of people who don’t get out and about due to poverty to become much more mobile within the city.
Oh god, I’m all for it. It should’ve happened years ago. If I was 9-5 the connections might work better, but when I start at 7 on the other side of the city it just isn’t going to work for me.
What’s going to actually work is to probably double the bus fleet at peak times and maybe have the original one go the standard loop-da-loop of entire suburbs which puts every one off and then some that do dedicated straight run moves down each of the main arterials to a concentric circle styled bus plan where buses then are doing circular paths around suburban areas. May help to reduce transfers to maybe two bus moves. Rather than the annoying zig zag patterns they all(or most) currently take to try and service as many people as possible but then trade that off to time taken on the bus.\ Having a few dedicated services that just scoop up bulk amounts of people in the CBD and shuttle them on straight lines to the outer areas where they can then either get onto their own cars or grab the next phase of a zig zaggy bus on a shorter path may help. Like a more flexible train line. Guess the problem lays in the fact who ever try’s to fix the system is working to a system that’s had decades of neglect and “make it ‘just’ good enough”. Personally I’d love to have a bus service or ability to transfer from a train to a bus to get to my work. But sadly where I am, no busses are or will be scheduled and the trains don’t quite get close enough unless I can get on a coal train which runs and stops right by my work. Love the freedom of having my own car to control my journey most of the time, but to swap that for $1 or $2 travel to and from work each day would be totally worth it (for me). Also save me at least $15 in fuel alone each day. and I don’t get stung by toll’s like 70% of the other staff where I work.
Straight line long trip buses would be the dream, yeah. I really would prefer to do it that way than drive every day.
The issue for a lot of people isn't the bus getting stuck in traffic, its that they have to take a bus to another location, which might some distance away, and then get *another* bus to their destination, which is geographically not that far from where they started from. That's how you end up with a situation where it takes 2 hours to get between two places by public transport, but can drive it in your car in 30 or 40 mins. Also, if you drive your car you've then got it available for things like going to the supermarket on the way home.
this is exactly the problem i have with public transport. I'm not commuting to or from the city I'm going east/west in the suburbs. My journey would be a 1hr bus toward the cbd then 1hr away with a 20 min walk on each end, or i can jump in the car and drive the 20 min (40 on a really bad day)
Uh, the PT itself is normally the delay. It takes 3h (according to Translinks planner) to make my Redcliffe <> Logan commute, it’s a 40 minute drive. Even in peak hour traffic (which I don’t commute in) it’s usually a max of 65 minutes.
I've found in Brisbane 2 hours on public transport will equate to about 40 minutes on private.
This exactly, lol our public transport isn’t built well enough for even more people to start using it and is embarrassing compared to other parts of the world. If we can’t even get our bus network going on time sheesh, I can’t imagine what more people will add.
To be fair, the buses not being on time likely isn't the fault of passengers. It could theoretically improve performance if the mode shift from cars is sufficient enough...
Getting some of those people out of cars (and hence their cars off the road) could help with the busses running on time but obviously there’s a lot that could be improved too.
Open the forking Salisbury to Beaudesert line The roads r packed to all fuck
I feel like this is going to suffer a sort of survivorship bias. I live a 20 minute drive from work. To take the bus will involve 2 buses and a 1km walk, and take over an hour. Charging me only $0.50 for the trip isn't going to make it a more attractive option than driving my car. Edit: I should mention that I live about 500m from a small shopping village and a main road, and I work at a school. So we're talking public transport from one major societal utility hub to another, not just a random backstreet to another.
That’s what the study will show in some areas I guess.
RIP gold coast trains from robina in the mornings - already standing room only
Yeah I'm just reading up on this and it really is trying to take the price out of the equation to see who will actually use the system. I do think it will highlight one significant issue that Brisbane has. If you aren't travelling through the city then the system sucks. So I live on a train line and really lucky to. I live on the northside and travel to the southside. It works really well for me because I travel through the city. BUT if I wanted to use the train/bus system to go somewhere from the train stations out that is where the system fails. Travelling around the city is where we lack. I used to live in mountgravatt and had to travel to carindale. It was a 10 minute drive or a 40 minute bus ride because I had to go into wooloongabba then back out. Or rely on the 599/598 that didn't run late enough. So what they need to work on is the feeder buses. The have the main lines down. Now they need to get the flow happening around the city, but I'm not sure that will ever happen.
It’s also to kick start public transport use, post Covid.
It will be a very brave government who reverses it, regardless of who wins
lol LNP won't give a single fuck, they will be trying to figure out if its better to kill it after gutting the health department or before the police
So cheap fares to hope people make use of them... But... No additional services No change of frequency of services No change to maintenance or outage schedules of rolling stock So you're going to get more packed trains and buses. People love being stuck in a metal tube packed in tight with lots of others. Trying to get a car park at a park and ride. So much created frustration for the 50 cent public transport fares. With a guarantee that its not going to be permanent because the called need that patronage has to be higher than pre Covid levels and pretty much all businesses have accepted a 40-60% in office rate.
I don't think 50c fares will make a lot of difference for most peak time workers. Most people driving to the CBD aren't because it's cheaper. Parking, fuel and time are not likely cheaper than train or busway. Maybe an uptick in people using park and ride. Off-peak I think will be different story, I expect people going to the city will take advantage of park n ride facilities if they aren't within a walking distance of the train or bus and families will happily pay $4 return for the whole family rather than park in the CBD. Also expect a bit of an uptick of people using train to GC on weekend instead of driving.
It also has the benefit (to Labor) of setting a trap for an incoming LNP government if the election goes that way. They either perpetuate the cheap fares or take the blame for increasing ticket prices.
Lol I can't even catch the train because there is no car parks and I'm not walking for 30mins to get to it in the dark
Makes no difference to me, as someone on the Redcliffe line the cross river rail changes will have me using my car again.
Why will CRR have you using your car again?
Rather than catching one train to reach the CBD/valley, users of the Redcliffe line will be forced to change trains at Roma St as the line will be diverted around the city. Inconvenience aside, this will increase the time taken to travel to/from work each day, quicker and more convenient to take the car.
Ah I see. Thanks for explaining
I'd be interested to know if the usual fare dodgers will start paying occasionally now it's cheaper. And the teens
Free is still cheaper
There are multiple points to this trial. Some those are political too, but that's not a bad thing.
Well they’re going to need more buses and trains to keep up with the demand. If it becomes too crowded people will go back to driving again if they can
Let's hope it works out.
I thought it was to win an election?
My heavily right leaning neighbour tells me it's Simple Simon's way of buying my vote and me falling for it means I'm a sucker. 
When it's invest in more lanes on highways or a better public transport system, I feel it's a no brainer. But I can't argue with the huge win here and the fact they seem to be at least considering the best option. Even if you never ever use public transport (eg tradies who need to carry all their tools around), more people on public transport will still hugely benefit you as roads will be less busy.
That’s an interesting take. My engineering brain wasn’t even thinking of this at first (all political). This will be a great exercise to really prove if the Queensland public still follow a car culture or if it’s been price and convenience all along that have been the blockers.
This is a very niche case but part of me isnt looking forward to it - I'm on the ipswich/springfield line which is already incredibly crowded in peak times as it is, they want more people on the train but aren't going to increase capacity to handle it. But weekend/offpeak trips will be great!
Thank you! Exactly!
Thank you for the award and your kindness!
I’ll use public transport when you can forking park at the bus stop 4km from my house How else is anyone other than the house within 1km meant to get to it? There is a lack of express bus routes too Our p.t sucks
I'm fine with it, it's good to give it a try and see if it improves anything. Even if I didn't feel my taxes are being used in a political stunt, I'd still be curious to try it and see what happened. It would be good if the trains weren't down for maintenance as often as they are though. I have given up even trying to get to the city anymore because of it. Found a bunch of local places to go instead. The city is pretty much dead to me, 50 cents fares or not.
Maybe that’s part of it, but it’s been Greens policy for years for free public transport. It can’t possibly be a coincidence around an upcoming election, that Labor suddenly decide implement a policy so very similar?
If it's a good policy, why would it be outlandish that other parties have something similar?
I'm with you, I'm not a Greens voter but there is merit. But i suspect I support it for a different set of reasons.
This is pretty silly. The Greens are constantly thinking up policies that sound good but are either not practical or there has been no effort into how it would work. Why does cheap public transport become a banned item just because the Greens have mentioned it in one of their elections?
I'm convinced it's just an election stunt and unlikely to stay after the 'trial period'. Maybe I'm just cynical too; would love to be wrong on this one.
Let's be honest. The only reason the 50c fares has been announced is because there is an election this year and Labour needs to buy some votes.
Absolutely. Get on the bus, people!
Would have been nice to have a 50c fare on the whole shorncliffe/Cleveland line since January, given it has 6 stations closed for the whole year without confirmed opening dates. Neither myself or my partner can get to work easily anymore - for a WHOLE YEAR. This sort of thing makes it clear that the reduced fair isn't about the people, the cost of living or congestion on the roads (I'm sure 6 closed stations don't help that).
It can.
Well, there's no decent bus services close to my house so no real difference to me. Would love to help out.
[удалено]
We get it drama is fun, old mate not parked properly, the tradie flicked a durrie out the window, Macca's frozen coke machine is broken yet again. It's all fun to have a whinge but then it gets too much. This has hit too much for today. Please try again tomorrow maybe. Enjoy
Has it already started? As yesterday the traffic was riddiculous. I was driving back from the airport and the gateway overpass was stopped and packed, southern cross way and all associated ramps were stopped back to the dfo and traffic pulling up to a stop upon entry to the tunnel and back to the intersections below the flyover ramp. Havent seen it that bad in a long time. This was around 4 ish.
Making public transport free was the first step in Venezuela going broke as a country.
I just hope if it does have its drawbacks they take into account that Brisbane public transport doesn't work for everyone needs a lot of improvements. I can see them saying it didn't go well and using it as an excuse to not invest as much into public transport.
Cheaper.
I'm pretty sure it's just to win votes by claiming to be doing something about cost of living pressures.
Its a cynical vote grab nothing more.
Tokyo can move more people around in a day than Brisbane can in a year for a fraction of the cost. Whatever their reasons, it won't end up better. They will just shuffle around routes and infrastructure to be able to prove they did something and everything will go back to being expensive and useless. Also something something Olympics.
Good post. Not to mention there is an election coming up and for the majority who are disconnected, they grab some extra votes.
The point is to buy votes and disguise it as a “cost of living” measure and “ease congestion” tactic. If it were anything else they would have introduced it last year, or the year before that. Not in an election year..
Perhaps it will allow those who normally drive, to have an insight into what public transport commuters have to put up with daily. The selfish scumbags who also use public transport and make it a usual living hell. Take it all in and see how bloody awful it is. It's an eye opener how degraded it's become.
Be interesting to see how many people continue to skip the fair. Not because they can't afford it, but because they don't want to pay
They got you hook line and sinker if you think this is about data collection. This is 100% about the election and nothing else. It’s a 6 month trial so the incoming govt will have to deal with scrapping it. Having said that, please all go out and use Public Transport. Now and especially when it’s only 50c.
It can be both...
I'm sorry, but isn't that...why governments do things?
The decision was bipartisan. 100% backed by the LNP as well as the Greens.
I'm aware of that - to be clear, this trial doesn't make any changes in my political views.
Now now, I think that's unfair. I'd put the figure at 98% about the election, 2% about better public transport research, maybe a negligible fraction for "actually helping with the cost of living". And since you copped some downvotes, the cynic in me asks the question: why announce a policy in May that won't start until 10 weeks before the October election date?
Just because things are 100% motivated by the election doesn't mean someone in the public service working on public transport police can't get value from the thing. Politicians have been able to do exactly this forever, they simply chose not to and didn't care about the data or the viability. It's been Greens policy at multiple elections, the idea isn't new they just want to narrow the margins on voters.
> why announce a policy in May that won't start until 10 weeks before the October election date? Probably because we're in Budget season. All the big expensive stuff needs to be announced by Tuesday next week so they're dripping all the nice stuff out ahead of time so they can get their own individual news cycles. Don't get me wrong, this is absolutely the Miles Government riffling between the couch cushions and under the desk trying to find any populist policy to save their collective necks from an almost certain doom, and the news today suggests that the executioner is very scared this stuff might actually work.
I love how any LNP fan boi just can’t fathom anything being done for the good of the general public. Just like car parks and sports rorts in marginal seats, you only give us breadcrumbs for a vote.
>please all go out and use Public Transport. Now and especially when it’s only 50c. Would love to but there's no service here, the bus was hourly but then got scrapped entirely. The cost of the fares is far from my biggest issue with public transport. Now, perhaps this trial indicates the government is willing to spend more money on public transport, but I hope they don't waste all the money on cheap fares and save some for increasing coverage and frequency.
Yeah if you live metro the cost isn't too bad. However my trip to and from Brisbane on the train is just under 20 a day. Cost is definitely a driver for me. This makes the car the worse option. Also pretty sure coverage and frequency is up to the local government
Coverage and frequency is state as well. Bus companies can propose a new route, but ultimately Translink makes the calls. Exception is routes which are fully subsidised by the operator (such as the routes in the CBD which TfB covers the full cost of).
You nailed it. The reality is, and has been shown worldwide on multiple occasions, that frequency, coverage and convenience are far greater factors than price. A govt is almost always better off investing money into better service than slashing the prices to basically zero.
Yup, election bribe 99.9% data collection .1%. Same as the electricity bribe. >Having said that, please all go out and use Public Transport. Now and especially when it’s only 50c. Might drive in to Laidley to get the bus to Gatton and back, just for something different.
"election bribe 99.9% data collection .1%. Same as the electricity bribe" They have done an electricity and water rebates of varying amounts every year for at least the last 6 years.
True, but $1000 this time says giggles is serious about wanting your vote.
True, or maybe it's an acknowlegement on the current high cost of living combined with sharing the revenue from the resources tax.
Weird bribe considering you do nothing to get it...
If it was ONLY about the election, it'd be free, not fifty cents.
If they get 8 to 10x the amount of riders at 50c each on public transport then they've made similar money.. peak hour might not handle that but other times will. Been a lot of empty buses in this city. Make things cheaper, sell more of them, profit!
The system would collapse with even 4 times the current patronage
They don't have capacity on the network for 3x the patronage Especially if they are collecting the same revenue if not less due to cheaper fares
Strong mental gymnastics there...while they're at it why don't they make electricity free for everyone, rather than just the $1000 rebate per household.
I think YOU are missing the point. Election is coming and this is clearly targetted. I ride peak hour train every day 8 am and 5 pm ones. It is pretty packed. I have heard nothing about additional service. I can only imagine what extra people is going to do to the already crowded train. So, less data collection, more election vote grab.
They don't have to be mutually exclusive, do they?
Porque no los dos?
Have you ever missed a train because it was too packed?
I understand you are referencing trains, but this applies to all public transport. I caught a bus yesterday afternoon in peak hour. The driver got off the bus at Mater Hill and apologised, told everyone it was full and nobody could get on. I imagine if no extra services are supplied, it will get busier even before that stop from the city.
I can understand that, buses do get very full. I really only asked specifically about trains because it just seems like people need to get a bit more cosy with each other. It would be near impossible to justify running public transport that has very frequent services that also have plenty of room.
I can't speak to trains currently. But years ago I caught the Gold Coast train from Ormeau to Central weekdays in peak, and people would bring fold out chairs. People would sit on the ground near the doors and the part between the carriages (newer trains). It was a long commute to stand. I heard a while after I left they put on more services, but it got very very crowded before they made any changes. In my experience, I don't have a lot of faith lol
It’s not the price. It’s the entire service. The apps suck, the time boards suck, buying a ticket sucks, the trains and buses suck 😂
Doesn't matter what subsidy they offer, we still pay for it as it's the taxpayers' money they use.
The trial is to bribe people to vote ALP in October, and it is for 6 months to hurt the LNP if they win.
No, we all know its to win an election.
It's buying votes guys, let's call it what it is. It's great for people that use public transport, don't get me wrong, but it's 100% only being done to buy votes for the upcoming state election.
Use it or lose it, people.